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Container Gardening

Meyer lemon coming back from the dead...

10 years ago

I have a meyer lemon that almost wound up in the compost bin, but has come back to life. Where it was once completely barren, in the last 2 months it is now covered in leaves and blooms. My questions are first, when should I give it some fertilizer (I've heard that plants under stress shouldn't be fertilized, but I'm not sure if it's still stressed), and second, when should I repot it? Finally, every so often I find tiny little green insects and/or tiny little white insects on the leaves. I've been spraying with Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew, and the plant still looks very healthy, but should I be doing anything else?

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Comments (7)

greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
10 years ago
Well that's great news :-)
Meyer's are especially sensitive to light and temperature changes, and they're also "hungry" Citrus plants. If it's blooming, it needs nutrients...so resume fertilization immediately. A fertilizer in a 3:1:2 ratio is excellent for Meyer's.

Keep after those pests (aphid? whitefly?) and the tree should be fine. A healthy, regularly fertilized tree will be able to resist and recover from pest damage.

The very best time to re-pot would have been between flushes of growth in the past two months (given your So Cal location), but I understand that the tree was recovering. If the plant is healthy enough now, it should be fine with a re-potting, though. I've certainly re-potted Citrus at worse times of the year. Can you post a picture of the tree?

Josh
vp_78
Original Author
10 years ago
Yep, I'll take a pic tomorrow morning and post it!
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Thanks, Rhizo, for responding so quickly. It's good to know that the snow won't harm them. I'm really surprised about that to say the least. Our weekly forcast doesn't look very good in the temperature area either. It's supposed to dip down to around 27Â°F-29Â°F for a couple of nights. Should I just leave them be? Now, to address your curiosity about my heavy pruning. Both trees were growing straight up with pencil-sized branches. I read on a Meyer Lemon Tree website (meyerlemontree.com/pruninglemontree) that you really can't go wrong pruning a lemon tree. The site stated that hard pruning would create a strong branch system, thus, able to support more fruit. According to them, most southern California lemon growers prune lemon trees down to the stumps and large branches. Thank goodness I didn't go that far! I thought they were the experts & pruned away. It was too late for me when I read a post here about Meyer pruning that did not support that of the so-called experts.
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Now is not the time to prune. You can prune off the dead branches in about a month, if nothing grows. Your plant has suffered the classic light change syndrome... Meyers are quite sensitive to light changes; they respond by dropping leaves and then growing new leaves better suited to the new light. Don't worry about the shape; the plant will produce new growth lower down to balance it later.
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Meyers can take it down into the low twenties from what I've read so you should be ok. The main thing is that most citrus hate being houseplants so don't baby it. It would rather spend the winter in a cold room with lots of light and barely any water. The fruit and leaf problems are probably just shock from being brought indoors like Transplant said. They can't live outside all year here - so you have to protect them somehow, but bringing them inside and overwatering them is the worst treatment. I grow a lot of potted citrus (I don't care for Meyer Lemon flavor so I grow other lemons) and each year it surprises me the amount of neglect they can handle over the winter. Cold and dry seems to make them bloom even more.
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User
10 years ago
mine did nothing for an entire year - it simply sat in its pot with a dozen scabby leaves throughout its first summer and all winter until finally, just a week ago - little green leaves appearing. It was days away from compost death....but now - revivified!
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
10 years ago
I think most on this forum are agreed that ALL container grown plants require regular fertilizer, and that citrus require more than most. Here we are expecting not only flowers but fruit, and if we do not fertilize the plant is left with only what can be produced by the leafs, which without fertilizer, will be few and far between. It is recommended at least a tablespoon per plant, of citrus labeled fertilizer, if available, monthly, year around. Most citrus will have fruit on the tree year around, and will not have a real dormant period. Al
David Shawver
10 years ago
Following the principles of the folks at Earthbox I've found a small amount of granulated slow release fertilizer works really well on most container plants including Meyers and Mexican limes. Chose your favorite organic or synthetic. Mine have blossomed like crazy this year and I'm expecting a lot of fruit. My wifes Malungai, Calamansi, Papaya, Guava also look to possibly fruit this year.
vp_78
Original Author
10 years ago
Awesome, will get fertilizing! I have some E.B. Stone citrus fertilizer that I'll use today! And here's a pic of said lemon, just leafing and budding out!

{{gwi:28542}}
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
10 years ago
Coming back nicely!

Josh

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